Steven R. Lewis starts work this month as the new chief executive officer of the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission. Lewis, who formerly headed the Community Partnership for Child Development in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will oversee an organization with a $130 million annual budget that started bleeding red ink as far back as 2022 and needed a $5 million loan bailout earlier this year to keep the doors open.

After its financial crisis became public, Fresno EOC underwent significant changes in 2025: Dozens of jobs were cut, benefits trimmed, and there was a tighter focus on spending and accountability.

The organization may be undergoing transformation, but barring a handful of newcomers, Lewis will be working with many of the same commissioners whose actions and inaction led to budget shortfalls and depleted an $8 million reserves fund, putting the organization on the brink of failure.

Majority of Board Members Ignored Red Flags

Former Fresno EOC staffers and administrators who spoke on condition of anonymity say the majority of those board members ignored red flags about the agency’s finances as well as reports about a hostile work environment, a culture of bullying, high staff turnover — including a revolving door of chief financial officers — out of control spending, and demands by former CEO Emilia Reyes that violated bidding and contracting rules.

Some wonder how much of what transpired was the result of a lack of transparency or was because board factions were more focused on getting the biggest share of the agency’s resources for their communities instead of on the bottom line.

GV Wire sought interviews with Board Chairman Oliver Baines and Reyes but was unsuccessful.

Baines, a former Fresno City Councilmember who is president and CEO of the Central Valley NMTC, is appointed to the Fresno EOC board by Congressman Jim Costa. He was first appointed to the commission in 2020 and became chairman in 2024 after longtime chair Linda Hayes announced she was stepping down. Baines declined to respond to a series of questions about how the organization’s finances became so tattered and about the board’s responsibilities.

Reyes did not respond to requests for an interview.

How Money Was Being Spent — and Misspent

Once the agency’s financial woes were apparent, the commissioners ended Reyes’ contract and lured former CEO Brian Angus out of retirement. Angus, who signed a six-month contract as interim CEO, was joined by another former administrator, Salam Nalia, who stepped in as deputy interim CEO and then this summer as interim CEO.

At the May board meeting, Angus painted an alarming picture: “The past five years I don’t think anybody cared about the revenue stream coming in, and if you don’t worry about how much money is coming in, it doesn’t matter how much money is going out. You think about that — if somebody said to you, don’t worry about how much you make this week, just spend whatever you want. Basically that’s what happened.”

Agency officials contended that they were “locked” into food and transportation contracts that were costing more than the revenue they produced. Angus noted at one board meeting that new contracts would have provisions allowing for cost adjustments.

The agency also was spending lavishly on new computers, new furniture, remodeling executive offices, gifts and parties for staff, pension benefits, and giving laid-off employees three months’ severance pay, which Angus termed “just ridiculous.”

Angus reported that in 2024 the agency spent $85,000 on gifts such as jackets and T-shirts given to staff. He reported slashing a total of $784,855 of administrative spending this spring, including dozens of jobs.

The contrast between Angus and Reyes as CEOs when it came to spending was stark, say former staffers.

A former administrator said that when Angus was CEO, staffers had to prove a computer or chair was broken before they could be replaced. Reyes OK’d spending on new furniture, computers, office remodeling, and other items.

“She was just dumping money, dumping it like, ‘let’s buy furniture for the courtyard during COVID,'” a former administrator said. “I’m like, who’s gonna sit in it? There’s nobody here.”

According to another former staffer, the board raised the threshold of what Reyes could spend without needing board approval.

Administrators told staffers to keep purchases under $2,500 so they didn’t need to be reported, even if that meant not saving money by buying in bulk.

Former staffers said they questioned other decisions by Reyes. Those decisions included:

• Jettisoning an RFP process to hire an attorney Reyes favored as general counsel.
• Refusing to provide itemized receipts or documentation for credit card purchases.
• Funneling contracts to close associates.

Another former administrator said she was startled to see a LinkedIn job posting for a new chief financial officer promising a $10,000 bonus if the new hire stayed at least six months. From 2021 through 2024, agency records show that at least four people were listed as chief financial officer or interim chief.

“I was like, what on earth? Like, where is that money coming from? Because I know that there’s some general fund money, but most of the dollars are attached to really specific projects. And you can’t just pay your CFO a bonus like that. It doesn’t seem legit in the nonprofit world.”

The rapid turnover at the executive level was noteworthy but perhaps not surprising, said another former staffer: “I have never seen so many executives leave so fast and it was because we were next. Everybody knew she had a hit list, and once she ran out of people you were next.”

The agency now is getting assistance in keeping track of costs. It signed a one-year contract with Charter Impact, an outside organization that provides financial assistance to nonprofits.

Charter Impact will “provide financial leadership and strengthen the agency’s fiscal oversight,” spokesman Amanda Venegas said. “Charter Impact specializes in nonprofit financial management, including services such as budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, compliance, and oversight of grant-related expenditures. They have extensive experience in audits. …

“Some of these functions were previously managed in-house, and Fresno EOC will continue to maintain an active role in day-to-day fiscal operations while leveraging Charter Impact’s expertise. The agreement reflects our commitment to ensuring accountability and strong financial stewardship across the agency’s more than 30 programs that fight poverty in Fresno County.”

Venegas did not provide the contract’s cost.

A Charter Impact report in Monday’s board agenda indicates that the agency still is spending in the red, although not as significantly as in 2024.

The Charter Impact report included the following warning: “Given the current financial position of the organization, it is critical that the Agency execute according to this reforecasted budget and begin to rebuild reserves. Certain programs are relying on CSBG (Community Services Block Grant) support to cover for structural deficits and are impacting the continued viability of the organization. These programs should be evaluated by management to determine if there is an ability to operate at a breakeven or if they should continue to be operated.”

Related Story: New Fresno EOC Chief: ‘We Have to Eliminate Bleeding Programs’

Culture of Intimidation

A climate of fear was how Reyes maintained control over the organization’s staffers, many told GV Wire. Those who tried to stand up to Reyes were bullied and ostracized, they said. Employees either decided to keep quiet and not jeopardize a good paycheck and health benefits, especially during the COVID years, or sought other employment.

Former staffers said they tried to bring this to the attention of commissioners but to no avail.

The culture of harassment and bullying is detailed in a lawsuit brought by Stacy Williams, the former manager of equity and inclusions.

Williams’ suit claims that when she reported the hostile work environment created by Reyes and the retaliation to the Fresno EOC board leadership, the retaliation and harassment from Reyes intensified.

Williams’ suit also alleges that Reyes retaliated after Williams said the agency “was engaged in unlawful behavior related to government grant reporting and spending. Ms. Williams opposed misappropriation of grant funding for unauthorized purposes and supported a complaint about improper grant spending that her equity inclusion director Kevin Williams made to Reyes.

This further whistleblowing also upset Reyes who took away the government grant management from Ms. Williams’ department so that neither Ms. Williams nor Director Williams had ready access to monitor the grant spending.”

Fears of retaliation may also have extended to board members themselves, said one former staffer.

If elected board members questioned her decisions, Reyes would threaten to find a challenger to run against them in the next election, the staffer said.

Angus alluded to the former culture when he talked to the board at the May meeting about turning it around.

“We’re addressing cultural issues. I think the issue here was that I believe in coaching styles and not micromanagement. I think this agency for the past five years, and you’ll talk to people in the staff, and it’s about, they’ve been told what to do so often. They need to be coached, you need to help people understand what their role is. You need to give them the goal of where they’re trying to get to and then let them go by themselves.”

Ignoring the Red Flags

As nonprofit board members, the commissioners are responsible for making sure that budgets are balanced and money is spent appropriately.

But the majority of the Fresno EOC board didn’t blink as spending on administrative costs grew from 7.5% to 12% of the budget, as money was spent on costly upgrades of executive offices or on parties and gifts for staffers.

One former administrator said that the board’s “laziness and lack of oversight” put the agency in a precarious situation.

When board members such as Charles Garabedian Jr. attempted to raise issues, “they got steamrolled,” the former administrator said. Instead, the board continued to give Reyes positive job evaluations and raises.

Board Needs More Focus, Less Infighting: Mendes

Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes said the board should have spent more time focused on the “big picture” and less time on factional infighting.

“If you get factions fighting, they lose sight of the ball, and the ball is to make sure the finances are right first,” Mendes said.

Some board members declined interviews and said Baines would speak for the board. But a few who did agree to be interviewed by GV Wire said they had raised issues and concerns with Reyes and the commission but were ignored or received assurances that the overspending was being addressed.

Garabedian, who has served on the board as a Fresno County Board of Supervisors appointee since 2000 and is the longtime board treasurer and Finance Committee chair, said individual board members lack clout.

“I was seeing it. I was raising the flags. And those who heard me, heard me. Those who did hear me and didn’t want to do anything, that I can’t say who they are. But I raised the flags.”

Board Vice Chairman Robert Pimentel, chancellor of West Hills Community College District, said he has a hard time pinpointing how it went wrong.

“The commissioners were asking questions during the board meetings,” he said. “Some of the answers were vague and some of the answers were coming back as, they were working on it.”

Nonprofit board members have three main duties: duty of care, duty of obedience, and duty of loyalty, said Geoff Green, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits. Duty of care means “to take care of the nonprofit, making sure there’s prudent use of assets, facilities, people, just generally caring for the entity for which you’re serving as a board member,” he said.

It’s important for organizations like Fresno EOC to have cash reserves on hand to bridge funding shortfalls, such as in recent months when the Trump administration pulled the plug or delayed federal support for some programs.

“All money does is buy you options and time. And so if something goes away, then you’ve got a million dollars’ worth of options and time to kind of navigate and figure out where you’re going to be on the other side,” Green said. “If you’ve gotten into the habit of just sending that down to fill a budget hole, then you’re in trouble because you don’t have those options.”

Using reserves isn’t always a bad idea, Green said. Nonprofits may opt for a short-term strategy to use reserves to cover temporary budget shortfalls or while moving to a new funding model.

But spending down reserves completely should have raised red flags among the Fresno EOC commissioners, he said.

“The bottom line is, the board clearly wasn’t fully engaged in acting in response to what they were seeing to head off a bigger problem,” Green said. And ultimately, “The buck stops with the board.”

Fighting Poverty Since 1965

The Fresno EOC was one of the first community action agencies created by President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty to improve the conditions of the nation’s impoverished neighborhoods.

The goal of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was to obtain equality of opportunity in education, employment, health, and living conditions for every American. The act created 900 Community Action Agencies, including Fresno EOC.

Since its founding the Fresno EOC has been responsible for a variety of programs, including Women and Children (WIC) nutrition programs, Head Start early childhood education, the Local Conservation Corps, food distribution, energy services, and the School for Unlimited Learning.

Over the years the agency has expanded its partnerships and also its real estate holdings, with a large headquarters building in downtown Fresno near Chukchansi Park.

The board of 24 commissioners is tripartite — eight are elected by area, eight are appointed by elected officials, and eight are representatives of community and business organizations such as the NAACP, Reel Price, and the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools. There are currently three vacancies, two from the community appointments and the Area D representative. Of the remaining 21, two joined in 2000, two in 2016, one in 2019, two in 2020, one in 2021, four in 2022, two in 2023, three in 2024, and four so far in 2025.

When Angus retired as CEO in 2019 and was replaced by Reyes, the agency’s budget was balanced and its programs were supported through contracts and grants.

Less than a year after Reyes took over, the COVID pandemic arrived, and the agency had to scramble to figure out how to continue providing services during the lockdown. In May 2022 the first red ink appeared with a finance report to the board of net deficit spending instead of net surpluses. The red ink numbers reported to the board grew larger in subsequent months.

The Fresno EOC board was finally forced to publicly confront its financial crisis last fall after Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula wrote an open letter saying that the organization was “hemorrhaging” money and calling for a forensic audit. Arambula had appointed himself to the Fresno EOC board seat formerly held by his mother Amy.

The same month as Arambula’s letter went public, the board put Reyes on paid leave. The commissioners decided the following month not to renew her contract, brought back Angus as interim CEO, and agreed to a forensic audit of the 2024 finances.

The results of the forensic audit apparently have yet to be released. Garabedian said such audits are designed to ferret out whether there were any financial improprieties.

A Need for Transparency

Would this have happened if Fresno EOC was more transparent?

Garabedian says there has long been a debate over Fresno EOC should be subject to open records and public meetings laws. It seems like the agency is halfway there already: Its meetings are open to the public, the agendas and minutes are posted online.

But prior public records requests for information about travel, meals, and gifts paid by the agency were rejected by lawyers who said the agency for the most part is not subject to the state’s public records law.

GV Wire hit a stone wall when simply seeking the PowerPoint slides that Angus had presented at the May board meeting when he was talking about budget cuts, expenditures, and the $5 million loan.

Even though the slides were shown during a meeting that was open to the public, the agency’s attorney released redacted versions in response to an email request.

Pimentel and Mendes say they don’t believe there’s a need for such secrecy for an agency that spends so much public money.

“They’re spending public dollars, they should be subject to all that (public records laws),” Mendes said.

“I think it has to be transparent, you know, we have to be able to provide the public with answers when they ask,” Pimentel said. “I think, like I said, it’s really hard to pinpoint where we went wrong before, but I think moving forward, that’s something that we should work on.”

A month before his departure, Angus told the board he was hopeful the changes he helped engineer would restore the agency to its former vibrancy.

He asked the board to schedule an additional meeting “so we can talk more in depth about what needs to happen going forward with this agency, both how the board needs to change and everything, and how the staff needs to change. What changes in culture and the like have already been implemented. The seeds of change have been planted, and they need to be moved along to make sure they don’t die.”

It’s unclear whether that meeting was ever held.